Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (The New Cold War History)

321 Pages·2000·1.29 MB·English

by  Mark Philip Bradley

IMAGINING
VIETNAM
AND
AMERICA
 
  
John Lewis Gaddis, editor
IMAGINING
VIETNAM
AND
AMERICA
The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, –
                
Foreword by John Lewis Gaddis
TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress
ChapelHillandLondon
©TheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPress
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bradley,Mark.
ImaginingVietnamandAmerica:themakingofpostcolonialVietnam,
–/byMarkPhilipBradley;forewordbyJohnLewisGaddis.
p. cm.—(ThenewColdWarhistory)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
---(cloth:alk.paper)—---(pbk.:alk.paper)
.Vietnam—Politicsandgovernment—thcentury. .Vietnam—Foreign
relations—UnitedStates. .UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—Vietnam.
.UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—thcentury. I.Title. II.Series.
.. 
.'—dc -
Portionsofthisworkhavebeenpreviouslypublished,insomewhatdifferentform,as‘‘Imagining
America:TheUnitedStatesinRadicalVietnameseAnticolonialDiscourse,’’JournalofAmerican–
EastAsianRelations,no.(Winter);‘‘MakingRevolutionaryNationalism:Vietnam,
AmericaandtheAugustRevolutionof,’’Itinerario,no.();and‘‘SlouchingToward
Bethlehem:Culture,DiplomacyandtheOriginsoftheColdWarinVietnam,’’inColdWar
Constructions:ThePoliticalCultureofUnitedStatesImperialism,–,ed.ChristianG.Appy
(Amherst:UniversityofMassachusettsPress,),©bytheUniversityofMassachusetts
Press,andarereprintedherewithpermission,respectively,ofImprintPublications,Inc.,the
editorsofItinerarioandtheUniversityofMassachusettsPress.
         
For my parents,
Paul and Anna Bradley

CONTENTS
ForewordbyJohnLewisGaddis,ix
Acknowledgments,xi
Abbreviations,xv
Introduction:
LibertyandtheMakingofPostcolonialOrder,
 EuropeanWind,AmericanRain:
TheUnitedStatesinVietnameseAnticolonialDiscourse,
 RepresentingVietnam:
TheInterwarAmericanConstructionofFrenchIndochina,
 TrusteeshipandtheAmericanVisionofPostcolonialVietnam,
 Self-EvidentTruths?:
Vietnam,America,andtheAugustRevolutionof,
 ImprobableOpportunities:
VietnameseandAmericanDiplomacyinthePostcolonialMoment,
Conclusion:
BecomingPostcolonialinaColdWarWorld,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,

FOREWORD
It is rare to find a historian who actually demonstrates the relationship
betweencultureanddiplomacy.Historianstalkfrequentlyenoughabouttheneed
tomakethisconnection,butwhentheybegintowrite,theirsensitivitytocultural
differencestendstofade.Knowinghoweasilythedocumentstheyfindinthear-
chivescrossedborders,theyoftenforgetthattheideasthesedocumentscontain
werenotequallytransportable.Wordslike‘‘democracy’’and‘‘liberation’’cancarry
verydifferentmeaningsacrosstimeandspace.Culturehasawayofparticularizing
thesignificance,evenofwhatappeartobeuniversalconcepts.
MarkBradley’sImaginingVietnamandAmericaisawelcomedeparturefrom
thispatternofwritinghistory.Itshowshowaculturallyrootedparticularizationof
universalsbroughtabout,inSoutheastAsia,acostlyandprotractedColdWarcon-
flict.AnyonewhoreadonlythewordsofAmericanandVietnameseleadersatthe
endofWorldWarIIwouldhavethoughtsuchanoutcomeunlikely.FranklinD.
Roosevelt’s bitter denunciations of French colonialism seemed to clear the way
forHoChiMinh’sdeclarationofindependence,withitsquotationsfromThomas
Jefferson.Butappearancesdeceived,forasBradleymakesclear,theseconverging
pronouncementsarosefromremarkablydivergentexpectations.
TheVietMinhregardedtheAmericansalongwiththeRussiansasrevolution-
arieswhosehistoryofturningwordsintodeedsprovidedamodelforovercoming
imperialism—and perhaps also a basis for actual support. The Americans, how-
ever much they despised French colonialism, still saw the Vietnamese as naive,
passive, and ineffectual people whose independence in an emerging Cold War
could only create opportunities for international communism. The very infre-
quencyofcontactspriortoWorldWarIIhadledHoandtheAmericanstoassume